Eyes of the Tiger
by PatientNumber1889053
Summary: It all started with a letter...which then caused a complicated situation to fall on the Light Music Club. Can they resolve the matter or lose one of their own members in the end?


This will be my first K-on Fic, and it resulted out of a simple thought when I was looking at some fanart.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own K-On!

**Eyes of the Tiger**

**Chapter 1:** Love letter

She made her way down the stairs, humming one of their songs as she passed the rabbit and turtle figures. She paused for a while as she almost tripped on one of the last steps, and continued humming as she reached the ground floor, heading for the shoe lockers.

Yui Hirasawa switched from humming to singing as she started searching for one name along the numerous boxes. Perfectly content with how her life was at the moment, Yui ran her hand along the lockers, happily singing as she did.

"…_Kimi no egao souzou shite ii toko misetaku naru yo jounetsu wo nigirishime_(1)-- Ah! There it is!" She said happily as she stopped in front of the locker.

_Akiyama Mio_

The brown-haired girl looked left and right, making sure no one was around. _Even if it is already late, I have to look just in case~_ When she was sure, Yui opened the locker, expecting a thick wad of envelopes just like yesterday.

To her surprise and disappointment, it only contained one plain envelope. Still, the guitarist took it, inspecting it as if it would be armed with something out of the ordinary.

And it was. Despite it being a plain white envelope, with no stickers or curly writing _no cake-smelling perfume too..., _the name in the back was written in ink, one name in kanji.

Yui blinked. Once. Twice. She asked herself if she had forgotten how to read Japanese but figured she wouldn't be _that_ much of an airhead to forget something she encountered daily. But if she read right, the name wouldn't read 'Akiyama'.

And would instead read 'Tainaka'.

_Weird…_Yui thought to herself. _What would a letter with Ricchan's name on it show up in Mio-chan's locker?_

The girl thought to herself a few more minutes, and gave up eventually as she felt her stomach growl. _Oh well, I'm going upstairs anyway. _

Yui turned around and started making her way back, singing a random song as she swung her arms back and forth, the envelope she was holding giving her hand a cold feel.

"_Kira kira hikaru negaigoto mo, gucha gucha e taru nayamigoto mo_~(2)"

=ttavi ptrreoinn=

The guitarist energetically made her way up to the last of the steps, jumping on the last before entering the club room. "I got it~!"

Ritsu turned around, grinning at the air-headed girl as she received the envelope. "Good job, Yui."

"Ahehe. Thanks, Ricchan!" Yui smiled back as she happily rubbed the back of her head. It was just the two of them, Tsumugi and Azusa had already gone home and Mio was called to the Student Council, where she was to go home with Nodoka. _I wonder what Nodoka-chan's telling her about this time…_

"I'm going to go ahead and read this first." The drummer held up the white envelope as she headed towards the nearby chair, causing Yui to pout. "Awww…we're not reading it together?"

Ritsu then pointed to the table, which had a plate of cake and a cup of tea conveniently placed on Yui's side. "We could… but don't you want to eat my share of tea and cake first?"

"Okay!" The other girl headed for her seat without a second thought, dropping the argument for the snack. Happily digging into the cake, Yui remained quiet as Ritsu, noticing the strange writing on the envelope, opened the letter and read.

"You know Ricchan, it's really cool that you thought of getting the letters from Mio-chan's fans so that Mio-chan can stop being so scared and flustered all the time…" Yui commented, pausing to eat a forkful of cake. "You even got Nodoka-chan and me to help! You really care about Mio-chan don't you?"

It wasn't until the guitarist was finished with her snack that she noticed that Ritsu hadn't answered. She looked at the girl, who was still staring at the letter. Yui tilted her head. "Ricchan?"

The drummer blinked, looking from the letter to the guitarist before laughing uneasily. "Um…What did you say? I wasn't really listening." Ritsu then saw the clock, eyes widening as she noticed the time. She stood up, grabbing Yui's hand before grabbing both of their bags and heading towards the exit. "The school's gonna close pretty soon, so we have to go."

=ttavi ptrreoinn=

They got out of the school, Ritsu handing Yui her bag before noticing that the girl still had cake on her face. The drummer sighed, pulling out a handkerchief and handing it to Yui before walking ahead. "Clean your face up with that."

Yui nodded, wiping the said cloth on her cheek before running to catch up with the other girl. After a few minutes of walking, she looked at Ritsu with a curious expression, wondering why the other girl had been so silent during their walk. _Usually we'd be laughing at something random right about now…_

Surprisingly, her usually lax mind had given her an explanation as to why her friend was so out of character. Two words, to be precise. _Love. Letter._

Yui smiled to herself. _He he…so this is what Ricchan is like when she's in 'Love-struck' mode. _She took another look at the drummer, whose mind seemed to be far away. The guitarist only grinned as any airhead would do when they know they did something good, and continued to do so as they continued the trip home. _Come to think of it, Ricchan looks cute when she's thinking! _

"Yui…"

_Not that she's not cute when she's not thinking…ha ha…_

"Yui. Earth to Hirasawa Yui."

_Oh, but not cat-cute like Azunyan! Maybe Fox-cute? No…that's Sawa-chan-sensei… More like…tiger-cute? Yep! That suits Ricchan! A cute, little--_

"YUI! Stop grinning like an idiot and listen to me!"

Ritsu's angry voice snapped the air-headed guitarist out of her random chain of thought. "…eh?"

"Don't '…eh?' me, woman! I've been trying to get your attention for the past fifteen minutes!" A slightly pissed Ritsu said as she accusingly poked the guitarist below her collarbone. She then sighed. "Geez, why on earth do you have to zone out every few minutes? It's getting hard to tell when you're actually listening to what I've been saying or when you're going off to _Happy-happy-super-sweet-Yui-chan_ land…"

"And what were you saying Ricchan? Sorry I didn't pay attention." The other girl apologized as she earned a huff and another sigh from the drummer. _How did she know about my Happy-happy-super-sweet-Yui-chan land? I thought only Nodoka-chan knew about it!_

"Fine, fine. Just listen more okay?" Ritsu waved it off, slightly irked as Yui looked like she was about to zone out again. "Anyway, this is the place where we part. So, unless, you're planning on following me home, which I do NOT advise on doing, you're supposed to head that way." Ritsu said, pointing out the way to the Hirasawa residence.

Yui nodded, and then followed Ritsu's finger as she started heading home. "Bye bye Ricchan!" She then felt herself grin again as she thought of another thing to say. "Good luck with your letter! Gambatte!(3)"

Before the air-headed guitarist turned around and ran home grinning, she got a good look of Ritsu's face: a mixture of surprise, fear, anger and _what was it…_dread? _It looked like she was actually upset that she got a letter…_Yui thought was she neared her house, where the light was already on and she could smell her younger sister's cooking. As she reached her doorway, Yui shrugged it off. _Must be…how did Mugi-chan put it… 'confession jitters'? _Yui flung the door open and happily entered her home, having had a good day and now entirely focused on eating her heart out, completely forgetting everything that had happened for the day as well as their new song's lyrics and chords. "I'm home!!"

The next day, as Yui found out the morning before class started, Ritsu Tainaka was not there, and was nowhere to be found for that whole day.

**Eyes of the Tiger**

**To be continued**

1- These are lyrics from Fudepen ~Ballpen~. Translated: When I think of your smile I want to show off my good side Holding onto my passion (and if it wasn't cut off) I want you to turn around and look at me

2- lyrics from My Love is a Stapler/ Watashi no Koi wa Hotch Kiss. Translated: A sparkling request and a messy worry~

3- Gambatte means 'do your best!' or 'fight on!' in Japanese. I'd figure this would be better instead of its English equivalent since…you'll find out later.

A/N: I guess this is one of those more serious K-on fics. And it's to be centered on our drummer: Ritsu Tainaka. As for pairings, I'm not entirely sure, but there IS subtext and (probably) a pairing or two, since I am a yuri fanboy in love with Mitsu and Yuzusa (not that I'm not flexible when it comes to pairings, so there _might _be something new :P). Please tell me what you think in your reviews!


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